New Report: Bushmeat Hunting Driving Tanzanian Forests to Crisis

2/4/2011

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – The populations of several animal
species in southern Tanzania are suffering alarming declines due to bushmeat
hunting and habitat degradation, and urgent action is needed to prevent the
collapse of local biodiversity, a new report by Tanzanian and international
scientists and conservation organizations revealed today.

The report describes the results of three separate research projects focused
on the threats to biodiversity in Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve in southern
Tanzania since 2004. Although biodiversity is critical to the health of the
ecosystem—which many Tanzanians rely on for water, soil fertility and other
services—the report shows that Tanzania’s wildlife has been hugely impacted by
human activities and recommends that action be taken urgently to protect it.

“Some species in this region are on the brink of extinction from one of their
last remaining strongholds, especially the Udzungwa red colobus, a monkey
species found only in these mountains and nowhere else in the world,” said
Arafat Mtui, coordinator of the Udzungwa
Ecological Monitoring Centre.

“The declining trend is so sharp that without urgent action Tanzania will
lose a biodiversity treasure,” states Francesco Rovero of Italy’s Trento Museum of Natural Sciences, who led
the preparation of the report.

“Similar declining trends were also detected for the small forest antelopes
such as the duikers, and wildlife abundance is generally lower than in forests
that are better protected,” added Trevor Jones, a biologist of the team
affiliated to Anglia Ruskin University, UK.

“Human threats, especially hunting for bushmeat, but also forest degradation
through selective removal of trees, are behind these declining trends,”
continues Amani Kitegile, a lecturer at Tanzania’s
Sokoine University of Agriculture and Ph.D. student with Anglia Ruskin
University.

Martin Nielsen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark,
contributed with a study on bushmeat hunting in the Udzungwa forests. “From
interviews with hunters living in the villages bordering the reserve it emerged
that hunting is common, representing the main extractive use and threat to the
area’s unique biodiversity,” he stated.

The report highlights the need for greater attention to be paid to the impact
of bushmeat hunting in Tanzania’s forest reserves. “The Udzungwas are the pearl
of the Eastern Arc Mountains because they contain the largest forests and have
extraordinary numbers of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth,
including two species of monkeys,” stated Rovero. “Unfortunately, while some of
the forests are protected by the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, there are
important forests such as Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve that have not been
granted adequate protection.”

The scientists and conservation organizations associated with the report are
calling for urgent action to be taken to halt bushmeat hunting in the reserve
and to boost the management of the forest. Whilst recognizing the government’s
efforts to upgrade the Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve to become a Nature Reserve,
the report highlights the need to invest more resources and effort into the
forest’s protection and into community development projects and environmental
awareness amongst the adjacent communities.

“Action is needed now if we are to reverse the trends of biodiversity and
forest loss before it is too late. The government needs to allocate the
resources that are required to manage this national treasure and to address the
needs of the adjacent communities,” said Charles Meshack, Executive Director of
the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, Tanzania’s leading NGO in forest
conservation.

The research behind the report was funded in part by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).
Also supporting the report are the Trento Autonomous Province through Trento
Museum, Wildlife Conservation Society, Zoological Society of London, and Anglia
Ruskin University. The launch of the report was supported by the Tanzania Forest
Conservation Group.

Uzungwa Scarp is spelled without a “d,” but the mountains are spelled with a
d—Udzungwa Mountains

About the Eastern Arc MountainsThe study was conducted
in the Udzungwa Mountains of Southern Tanzania. The Udzungwas are part of the
Eastern Arc Mountains, an area considered by scientists to be a biodiversity
hotspot, as they hold over 100 animal and 850 plant species found nowhere else
in the world. Their unique biological importance is matched by their economic
value to Tanzania and globally, in the form of ecosystem services such as water,
hydropower potential, soil fertility in the lowlands and other natural assets
for the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and men living in these areas.
The forests are also an important reservoir for carbon and thus their
conservation is important to efforts to combat climate change.

Most of the Eastern Arc Mountain forests are included in Catchment Forest
Reserves. Over the last decade, nine of the most biologically important forests
have been designated as Nature Reserves or proposed Nature Reserves. The Nature
Reserve status accords the forests greater legal protection in terms of their
biodiversity values. Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve is currently a ‘proposed
Nature Reserve’ and a management plan is being prepared. The Eastern Arc Nature
Reserves and the Udzungwa Mountains National Park are also a proposed World
Heritage Site.

About the endemic primate species found in the Uzungwa Scarp Forest
reserveUdzungwa red colobus: this species of arboreal monkey is
found only within the Udzungwa Mountains. It is classified as Endangered by
IUCN. It feeds mainly on leaves and is particularly sensitive to forest
disturbance. Only in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, covering one-fifth of
the area, the species is well protected and the population is stable, while in
less protected forests most populations are declining, as is dramatically
happening in Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve.

Sanje mangabey: this species of monkey is found only in two separated
forests in the Udzungwa Mountains, one being the Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve.
No more than 1,500 individuals are left in the wild. It is classified as
Endangered by IUCN. It feeds mainly on fruits, and it is strictly dependent upon
large areas of undisturbed forest.

About the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre This is
the field station of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, established in 2006
as a partnership between Tanzania National Parks and Italy’s Trento Museum of
Natural Sciences. It aims to support and facilitate biological monitoring and
capacity building in the area, and is involved in monitoring the primates and
forest conditions in Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve. For more information, visit:
www.udzungwacentre.org

About CEPFThe Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a
joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation
International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank. A fundamental
goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation. For
more information about CEPF, please visit www.cepf.net